We Like, We Like to Party

Yesterday, while we were out running some errands, we thought it would be fun to stop at one of our favorite local shops to grab a soda and some cookies for the kids. We were waiting in the drive-thru line when "Somebody that I Used to Know" by Gotye came on the radio. For whatever reason, Daddy was excited by this fact and cranked up the radio. 

He completely ignored the loud protests from the back seat (we are only allowed to listen to the Frozen soundtrack or "everything is awesome" from the Lego movie...I think there might even be a law about it). Not only did he ignore the mutiny unfolding in the rear view mirror, he also *gasp* started to dance.

Now, I realize that Daddy's dancing skills are not unlike Elaine Benes or Billy D. Williams, BUT nothing could have prepared me for the assessment made from the back seat....

If we weren't still waiting for our cookies, I'm sure I would have choked. But Daddy and I lost it instead. 

Olyut was not amused. 

You bet it is. And hold on to your hat, kid.....it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. 

Love Boy

On Valentine's Day, the Princess informed us that she has a "love boy" in her class. I thought Daddy was going to pass out as soon as the words left her mouth. But there they were, and there was no taking them back. In the weeks since we have found out a thing or two about this so-called love boy.

He has spiky hair.

He doesn't know he's her love boy.

She doesn't know if he likes her.

But he plays with her at recess sometimes.

So when she wanted to make a creeper rainbow loom bracelet for Olyut with a plan to make another for herself after, I could only guess the reason...

YOU want a creeper rainbow loom bracelet too?
Uh huh. I want to wear it to school. Some people at school like Minecraft too, ya know. 
Oh, I see. Some people, huh? Does your love boy like Minecraft?
Hehehehe....I don't knooooowwww!!
Well why don't you ask him?
I can't! If you talk during table time then you have to move tables!!
Ah. That makes sense.
But sometimes I look at him like this....

But he never seems to notice. 

That's when Daddy let out a momentary sigh of relief. I'm still pretty sure I saw him google shotguns earlier though.  

Are You Sure?

Let me preface this by saying that I understand that pornography is a bad thing. A really bad thing. I have seen people trapped and ensnared by the lure and temptations of pornography. I have seen a few isolated encounters with online pornography become devastating addictions that have broken hearts and torn families apart. I have spent hours hoping and pondering and praying that I can keep my children and my family safe from its ever-reaching grasp. Those under its influence have been known to make poor decisions without fully understanding the span of the consequences. And it seems that even the fear of what pornography can do to our children is enough to adversely affect our critical thinking skills. 

I'm sure you have all seen it. It's usually preceded by some snappy little blurb...

"It only takes a minute"

"If it's working in England, why not here?"

"Think of our kids!"

"I just signed....will you??"

You know, that petition from the White House website to require porn to be an "opt in" feature with internet service providers. It's been posted by 6 of my Facebook friends today alone. 

Yikes! *porn* I don't want pornography in my home. Ever! Where do I sign? And how do I get all of my 400 Facebook friends to sign too??

Believe me, on the surface it sounds like a reeeeaaalllly good idea. Let people that like porn opt in and leave the rest of us alone. There's only one problem.....

After I worked my way through the emotional response I had when I read the word pornography and thought it through for a minute, I realized the ramifications of this petition are less about pornography and more about censorship. 

Let that sink in for a second. 

Yes, pornography is bad. But is censorship good? At the hands of our government, I'm not so sure. 

If we ask Washington to do this for us, what are the limits? I don't want pornography working its way into my home through the internet but what about art? In my opinion there is a fine, yet distinct line between nudity in art and pornography.  Will congress place that line where I think it should be placed? Or will my children also be "protected" from the no less than ten works of art that I can think of (just off the top of my head) that could easily be tossed out with pornography should the government so decree? And how long until some self-serving politicians with hidden agendas convince us that parts of history should be included in what is shielded from the general public?

Do we really want them to have the power to decide what comes into our homes and what doesn't?

There has to be another way. There are already filtering programs available. My husband and I use one. We have come across several instances where a website was unnecessarily blocked and WE have been able to make a decision and override controls to make those websites accessible. Will the government do the same?

If we don't consider filtering systems good enough, perhaps we should have our friends and neighbors sign a petition to show internet service providers that we would be willing to pay extra to opt out of pornography. Or if we all think and brainstorm together, maybe we will come up with an even better idea. 

I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press were important enough, when combined with other concerns, to incite a revolution. Are we really so willing to give that up?

I think our kids deserve better

August Is For Lovers

Well, it's officially August. I like August for many reasons; the summer is winding down but we're still having fun, it's almost time for the kids to go back to school (anyone else have a countdown going?), and it's the month Olyut came home from the NICU and we still celebrate his "coming home day". But more than all of that, it's the month BJ and I got married. This August marks nine years for us. Nine. And I'm even more in love now than I was then. Sappy, I know, but true.

So here's the deal, I want to celebrate by sharing my artistic abilities with you. I have created some printable word art that I'm going to share with all of you. For free! For a limited time. I'm sharing one below, and I'm planning to offer at least two others. They will be available through August. Feel free to pin this on Pinterest or share it on Facebook or even on your own blogs, I just ask that you link back to me please. I worked hard on this, after all.

Just be warned, I also plan on sharing parts of our love story...how we met, ways that BJ still manages to steal my heart and sweep me off my feet, and all that jazz.

This first printable is a quote from Wuthering Heights, which I haven't actually read. I know, for same....right? But this quote so perfectly encompasses how I feel about BJ. He truly is my "other half". I can not even imagine what life would be like we're he not part of it, I am not whole without him. Totally sappy. I'm sorry....well not really. I honestly hope that everyone finds a love like that at some point.

Shopping on Saturday Night is a Bad Idea

Saturday nights at our local Walmart are a little crazy. Partly because most of our community avoids shopping on Sundays for religious purposes, and partly because the teenagers seem to think that's the place to be on Saturday night. Generally, I avoid Walmart like the plague on Saturday night.

I didn't have that luxury last night. 

I was lucky enough to get an evening out, BJ stayed with the kids while I went to a movie with my brother and sister, Brent and Ashley. When the movie was over we thought we'd stop and get a treat and I needed to pick something up for Sunday dinner. 

The, hopefully brief, shopping trip started off great. We ran into a family friend and had nice chat for minute. Our friend even offered to start as many blogs as I would like for the sole purpose of allowing me to guest post, thanks Jim! We parted ways and got down to business. 

We hit the DVD section to see if they had a particular movie we wanted to watch. No such luck, but not a big deal. Then we headed for the grocery aisles. I picked up some broccoli, cream cheese, and then decided to peruse the ice cream. After making our ice cream selections we rounded the corner to head for the chicken. I was in the lead, so I didn't actually see what went down but soon heard a commotion behind me. 

I turned around to see a teenage girl darting away from Brent. He was following right after her saying, "excuse me, what were you doing? Did you just take a picture of me? I'm talking to you...did you just take my picture?" She answered, "huh? No. I didn't do anything. Leave me alone."

"You were all up in my face with your phone and I'm pretty sure you were taking my picture or taking a video or something".

"I didn't do anything, leave me alone", she responded as she ran to meet her friends on the other side of the Oreo display.

Well, she did do something. She walked right up to Brent and stuck her phone in his face about two inches from his nose. And when he tried, two or three times, to duck out of her way she followed him with her phone up in his face the entire time. After witnessing the whole thing, Ashley jumped into action. 

She bounced after the girl and cut her off at the pass, "did you just take his picture?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"If you didn't do anything then show us"

"No"

"You did take his picture didn't you?"

"No, I didn't"

"If you didn't take his picture THEN SHOW US YOUR PHONE!"

She briefly held out her phone but dated away when Ashley tried to grab it. Brent and Ashley both followed after her as she met up with her friends saying things like, "you just can't get up in complete strangers faces with your phone!".

"It was just a joke! Calm down...it's supposed to be funny" they said as the rushed away. 

"WE'LL IT WASN'T FUNNY SO I GUESS IT WASN'T A VERY GOOD JOKE" Ashley shouted after them. 

Brent took off at almost a full run after them. At this point, I decided I was tired of cowering behind the Oreo display and wanted to finish my shopping, so I told Ashley to follow him to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, and went on my way. 

It turns out he just went to complain to the manager. But once the manager got involved the teenagers were long gone. 

I was still shaking long after we relayed the story to BJ. The only thing Brent was shaking was his head. And when we told BJ that Ashley had been ready to throw down, right in the middle of Walmart, she said "I could have taken her". 

Don't expect me to go to Walmart on Saturday night ever. again. 

My How-to Repertoire Needs a Little Work

I have been doing a little research lately on how to grow my blog. I love and appreciate all my adoring fans (hi Mom!) but I wouldn't mind adding a few readers to the mix. Here are a few things the experts say to do

Guest post on other blogs
Make a Facebook page
Comment on other blogs/Facebook pages/Instagram profiles
Write a how-to

Well, people aren't breaking down the door for me to guest post on their blogs...yet. And my parents always taught me it's rude to invite yourself over. I'm guessing that goes for blogs as well as houses.

I have a Facebook page. www.facebook.com/hersandhims

I'm trying to comment on blogs and Instagram but it isn't really encouraging people to check out my stuff. Honestly, the most it's doing is making me feel like a stalker.

So that leaves the whole how-to thing. Hmmm. How-to. I guess I know how to do some stuff.

I know how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I can generally keep my kids from beating on each other. But not always. Maybe we ought to scratch that idea. I'm pretty good at getting sucked in to old TV series on Netflix. Oh! I bet I could write a killer "how to avoid those piles of laundry" post.

Maybe I better think about it for a while longer.

Raiders of the Lost Fasser

Milgie loves her pacifier. LOVES. She calls it her "fasser". I thought about weaning her from it before Weezie was born but decided that would be too much change all at once. And perhaps a little cruel. She's my first to even take a fasser so this is all new territory for me anyway. 

Honestly, she doesn't care about it much when she's awake, she can take it or leave it. But nap time/bed time is a completely different story. That also seems to be the time when it most often goes missing. By "it" I mean the eight or so fassers we've accumulated trying to make sure we always have one on hand. 

We still lose them all. the. time. We had one such experience just recently. 

We had been running errands all morning and Milgie fell asleep in the car. So I hurried everyone inside, changed her diaper and ran her up to her bed. I thought a fasser was left there, but I was mistaken. 

So the search for the missing fassers began. I looked all around her crib, under her blankets and feeling in the corners. No fasser. I dropped to my hands and knees hoping one had rolled under her crib or under the Princess' bed. No fasser. 

So I ran down the stairs, frantically begging for help. "Come on guys, I need your help! I can't find a fasser and it's nap time. Milgie will never go to sleep if I don't find one!"

Olyut and the Princess have actually gotten pretty good at finding them around. They know all the right places to look. But this particular day they just sat there. I kept looking. 

In the Tupperware cabinet. Through the pots and pans where she's been known to hide them. "Come on guys! Please! I need your help!!"  I looked under the table and in her high chair. No fasser. 

I looked under the couch and through the toy box. No fasser. And the older two were still just sitting there! And, by this time, Weezie was awake. And starving. And screaming. 

"Please help me!!"

On to where we keep our shoes. No fasser. The DVD cabinet. No fasser. Weezie's bouncy seat, the bookshelf, the rocking chair, the bathroom, my bedroom. Still no fasser. 

Not a single solitary one. And no help from the peanut gallery either. 

"Can somebody help me please?!?!", I yelled as I started all over, from the top. 

Finally, Olyut replied, "don't worry, mom, I said a prayer...you'll find one any minute".

I remember thinking that wasn't exactly helpful as I rounded through each hiding place again, coming up empty handed. I figured it was pretty hopeless at that point. I braced myself for the oncoming screamfest as I trudged up the stairs to tuck her in, fasser-less. I knew she would never possibly fall asleep without it. But I knew we needed to try anyway. 

I rounded the corner to Milgie's room, and peered over the side of the crib. There she was. Asleep. With a fasser in her mouth. 

Behold the power of prayer. I guess Olyut showed me.